Gayming Manual is a new print-only zine from Gayming Magazine that celebrates LGBTQ+ gaming and nerd culture. It publishes every two months, six issues a year, and Issue One lands in November 2026. Pre-orders are open now at gaymingmag.com/zine.
The pitch is simple: a guide “for gaymers going offline.” Each issue runs 40 pages, full color, and is made entirely without generative AI. The zine covers games, TTRPGs, collectibles, and the queer geek culture built around them, spotlighting queer games, comics, and tabletop titles in physical media.
Why print, and why now? According to Gayming Magazine, the launch comes at a moment when queer creators and publications report their work being shadow-banned, demonetized, or removed outright by the platforms they depend on. A physical zine sidesteps that: a product that can be held and read, free from censorship and restriction. For readers following the wider shift back to physical media, our culture coverage keeps an eye on how fandom is adapting.
What is Gayming Manual, exactly?
It is a bi-monthly, print-only zine — a small self-contained magazine — built around queer geek culture. The concept leans hard into nostalgia: the theme invokes the paper manuals that used to come tucked inside game cases before digital downloads and online guides took over. Every feature is a “level,” every regular column is a “sidequest,” and competitions are “rewards,” where one lucky winner takes a major prize. For related coverage, see Nintendo Switch 2 Setup Guide: 9 Things to Do Before You Load a Single Game.
Each issue also carries a collectible hook. The cover art is original work by a different LGBTQ+ artist, and it wraps around the whole issue — front cover to back — unfolding into a single complete image. Issue One’s wraparound cover is by Isa Happyfield, a queer video game illustrator and Japanese concept artist and art director based in London, UK, who has worked on numerous video games and produces his own queer superhero manga and roleplaying game, QUEERZ!.
What is inside Issue One?
Issue One lands in November 2026, timed for the Holidays, and the contents list is a mix of interviews, features, and reviews of physical video games, tabletop games, and geeky products. The highlights: We covered a connected angle in Nine Dashboard Features on PS5 and Switch 2 That Save Real Time.
- Voice actor Samantha Bowling writes about why representation means giving Native creators room to grow, not just succeed.
- A Holiday Gift List of queer-made physical media and merch.
- A retro review of the Sonic the Hedgehog 35th Anniversary Legacy Cartridge from iam8bit & SEGA, marking 35 years of Sonic.
- An interview with actor, comedian and filmmaker Brandon Rogers.
- Canadian beauty and gaming content creator and trans advocate Stef Sanjati takes the 20 Questions challenge.
- Tales from the Tabletop, a column by advocate and streamer Tanya DePass.
- A Gayming Lore history column looking back at Dragon Age II.
- A comic strip by Kayla Shaggy and a Cosplay Corner showing the creations of Gayming’s real-life fans.
- A competition to win a Sonic the Hedgehog 35th Anniversary Legacy Cartridge Collection, featuring Sonic the Hedgehog & Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
The retro cartridge review is the piece console collectors will notice first. Limited physical releases like that one sit right at the intersection the zine is aiming for: collecting, preservation, and fandom. Our retro section covers the same beat from the hardware side.
How much does it cost, and how do you get it?
You can buy individual issues, with pre-orders open at gaymingmag.com/zine. There is also a new Gayming Manual Patreon. Patrons get every issue as soon as it is off the press, plus additional exclusive content in the “off-months,” 20% off Gayming merch, and discounts and benefits from advertisers.
Each sale gives back, too: $1 from every copy goes directly to the Gayming Foundation, which supports its work for the LGBTQ+ gaming community.
Why the print-only bet matters
Robin Gray, Founder & Publisher of Gayming Magazine, framed the launch as a response to two pressures at once: companies going digital-only, and what he called “one of the most draconian moments of online erasure and censorship,” with LGBTQ+ accounts and communities taken down repeatedly, often without warning or explanation.
“It’s time to go back to go forward. Back to a time when we bought and owned physical media. Forward to a future where the queer games, comics and books we love can’t be censored — because we’re holding them in our hands, not scrolling for them in a billionaire’s feed.”
Joel Medina, Editor of Gayming Manual, made the editorial case. “Gayming Manual will give our geeky LGBTQ+ communities the uplifting (and endlessly nerdy) physical media they’ve always deserved,” he said, adding that queer geeks are searching for offline content free from meddling by “corporate overlords,” and that each issue will uplift marginalized artists from across the globe.
The note about generative AI is worth flagging for collectors. Every issue is made entirely without it, and the rotating wraparound cover art is positioned as collectible work by named artists. That is a meaningful distinction in a market where provenance increasingly matters to buyers.
What happens next
Issue One arrives in November 2026, with five more issues to follow across the year on the bi-monthly schedule. Whether a print zine can hold an audience that platforms keep fragmenting is the open question, and the Patreon structure suggests the publishers know recurring support, not single sales, is the real test. If you are new to the beat, our gaming news hub will track how the run goes.
